A wealthy Sembian merchant has been buying fine furnishings for his newly built country mansion. Among them, he picked up many large old paintings at auction from the homes of fellow Sembians who had fallen on hard times or died. Whenever moonlight touches one such painting, strange monsters emerge from it. Is it a portal? If so, to where? Where did it come from? Who made it, and why? And why have attempts to destroy it had such deadly consequences?